Configurable with 24-, 36-, or 48 active ports, the switches provide 4- and 8-Gb/s auto-detect for compatibility with existing NEXIO clients that do not have 8 Gb/s Fibre channel adapters. The NXFS8500 switches include redundant power supplies and are field–upgradable to support storage or server system expansion.

The powerful, easy-to-use management features of the NXFS8500 series switches make them a value-packed component of the NEXIO Farad storage system. The switches feature twenty-four to forty-eight 16 Gb/s Fiber Channel ports, which are fitted with 8 Gb/s SFP+ modules and utilized as 8 Gb/s switches in NEXIO Farad configurations. The switches include redundant, hot-swappable power supplies and can be upgraded from 24 to 48 ports in 12-port increments in the field. The NXFS8500 series switch is ideal for facilities with high-bandwidth, high-redundancy requirements and growing channel counts.

The NXFS8500 series switches support NEXIO SANs running at 4- and 8-Gb/s per port. This flexibility allows all generations of the NEXIO server to use the same switches. The NXFS8500 switches are always installed in redundant pairs. With this configuration, the switch is not a single point of failure, as all NEXIO servers have fully-redundant data paths to NEXIO storage.

Note: The NXFS8500 series Fiber Channel switches, as well as the smaller NXFS8400 switches, support the NEXIO Farad storage infrastructure, but they are not compatible with previous NEXIO storage systems such as the NEXIO NX3100/3000 products. NXFS1600 series Fiber Channel switches – which are conversely not compatible with Farad storage – must be used with non-Farad storage networks.